President Trump's daughter participated in high-level meetings throughout the summit including a World Bank panel on women's entrepreneurship with several high-ranking international officials. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

Ivanka Trump briefly sat among world leaders after she took her father's seat at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg.

But critics did not like the idea of the first daughter filling in for the president, pointing out that she was neither elected nor qualified to represent the United States at a high-level event.

Trump was spotted sitting in her father's seat Saturday at a working session on “Partnership with Africa, Migration and Health.” A picture shared on Twitter by a Russian attendee but since deleted shows her seated between British Prime Minister Theresa May and Chinese President Xi Jinping. German Chancellor Angela Merkel sat one seat away.

Her presence at the high-level table was somewhat unusual, given that government ministers are typically the ones called to stand in for heads of state at such sessions, The Washington Post's Abby Phillip wrote. A spokesman for President Trump's eldest daughter told The Post that she “briefly joined the main table when the President had to step out.”

It does not appear that Trump spoke at the session, but her presence at the table was met with widespread criticism on social media.

Some say it further blurs the line between family and political affairs in the Trump administration. Ivanka Trump serves as an adviser to her father. She and her husband, Jared Kushner, also an adviser, are both powerful figures in the White House and have accompanied the president on his foreign trips.

Ivanka fills in for her dad beside Xi Jinping. To me, it feels banana-republicky for the US to be represented by an inexperienced daughter. https://t.co/lDDlyCeFp9

In an interview with “Fox and Friends” last week, Trump said she tries to stay away from politics, despite having a White House role that has expanded since she became a volunteer “assistant to the president,” a job without pay that carries ethical obligations . In a statement addressing concerns about her role as the president's adviser, she said:

I have heard the concerns some have with my advising the President in my personal capacity while voluntarily complying with all ethics rules, and I will instead serve as an unpaid employee in the White House Office, subject to all of the same rules as other federal employees. Throughout this process I have been working closely and in good faith with the White House counsel and my personal counsel to address the unprecedented nature of my role.

Her participation at the G-20 summit was not the first time she was criticized for her role in her father's administration. For instance, her presence at a November meeting between her father, then president-elect, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe immediately raised questions about possible conflicts of interest.

Why the hell is Ivanka Trump sitting in for daddy at G20 meetings?! What are her qualifications? Who voted for her?

Critics have also said that although she's taken on progressive issues such as paid parental leave, child care and female empowerment, she has done little to moderate her father's nationalistic policies and has yet to publicly comment on the Trump administration's more controversial policies on immigration or climate change. Her defenders said that Trump, who's navigating an uncharted territory for a first daughter, has been unfairly criticized and held to impossible standards.

In a recent interview with The Post defending her White House role, Trump said her job is to inform and support her father, not to make him commit to something he's not interested in.

“I am not sort of trying to selectively curate information that will lead him to agree with me,” she said. “Debate is good.”

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Ivanka Trump: A life in the spotlight

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Here’s a look at Ivanka Trump’s early life of privilege and transformation into a business executive, first daughter and adviser to the U.S. president.

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Here’s a look at Ivanka Trump’s early life of privilege and transformation into a business executive, first daughter and adviser to the U.S. president.

July 16, 2014Ivanka Trump poses for a portrait at Trump Tower in Manhattan.Yana Paskova/For The Washington Post